One morning, waking up from a horrific reality, I found myself facing yet another horrific reality.
“What the… shit….”
When I’d been caught by the attacker—Choi Haegang, as I’d later learn—I didn’t die right away. No, “couldn’t die” would be the more accurate way to put it.
Choi Haegang held a deep grudge against me and the boss over his friend’s murder. With the help of a spy who’d infiltrated our organization, he’d lured me into a trap. Since he was targeting the boss, he had no intention of easily killing me, his enemy and his enemy’s right-hand man.
After that, it was the same pattern, over and over.
Choi Haegang: Where is Han Yugyeong? Talk straight.
Seo Sinwoo: I’m telling you, if I tell you that, I’ll die… aaaargh!!
If it were up to me, I would’ve spilled everything before he even finished asking, just to keep myself alive.
Because of the boss’s ability, “Contract,” the moment I revealed any confidential information, my heart would melt. Naturally, I also couldn’t do anything that would harm the boss—and if the boss died, I would die too.
So, unable to reveal anything, I suffered through what could’ve been called interrogation, or maybe just venting frustration, for a long time.
Eventually, he stopped even asking questions and just tormented me, and I secretly prayed for him to make me talk instead. I felt like having my heart melt would hurt less. I just wanted the boss to get caught and die quickly.
Months passed, locked away in that basement. In the final moment, I felt a sharp pain in my chest and instinctively knew—both the boss and I were going to die.
After dying, the place I arrived at was neither heaven nor hell, but the sofa in a room I’d used back in my hazy, distant youth.
For some reason, both my arms—which had been gone—were intact.
For some reason, the date on my phone showed six years ago.
Something strange was attached to my vision.
[Quest: Settle your Karma.
!If a certain amount of time passes without fulfilling the quest, a penalty will be applied.]
Below it, some small unknown number floated.
[Karma: 60,000]
No matter how many times I closed and opened my eyes, it didn’t change.
This translucent window would disappear naturally after some time, and reappear if I thought about it.
Doubting my own sanity, the moment I got up, I ran to the mirror.
“…Ha.”
Thankfully, the one in the mirror was no one else but me, Seo Sinwoo. Outwardly, I really did look completely fine. Except for looking somehow younger.
But it wasn’t just my face. The scars left on my body, the gems I’d collected, all the incidents I’d caused over the years—all of it, without exception, the traces accumulated over six years had vanished.
On the community forum, people were chattering about the Association’s upcoming 10th anniversary event. But as far as I knew, the Association had been founded over 16 years ago.
This… I’d never experienced it myself, but it was a situation I’d seen a lot of, somewhere.
I put down my phone and muttered.
“Regression…?”
***
Just because the world had half-collapsed didn’t mean the internet had disappeared too.
If anything, with gates opening, the number of creative works themed around special abilities had skyrocketed.
I don’t know why, but among them, the newly emerged “Hunter genre” had become a sensation.
Regression and system windows were common tropes in those Hunter stories. Even I, who had zero interest in watching screens, had heard of them.
Now that I thought about it… there was even someone among the organization members who liked that stuff.
“What’re you watching?”
“! I’m watching ‘The Strongest Hunter Who Regresses Infinitely with a System Window,’ hyung!”
“Oh….”
At the time, I’d thought it was childish and brushed it off. Would it have helped my current situation if I’d asked more about it back then? …Well, the internet was still up now, anyway.
It was an era where gates were opening everywhere and people were awakening abilities. Going back in time, a delusional system window appearing in reality—it would’ve been laughable to make a big fuss over it, too.
No matter how sudden, quick adaptation was the only way to survive. Denying something that had already happened wouldn’t solve anything. This was wisdom I’d learned about life after the first gate incident.
However.
‘…This is way too unhelpful.’
What on earth was Karma, and how was I supposed to “settle” it? On top of that, the words “Karma settlement” and “penalty” sounded ominous no matter how I looked at them.
That’s how I spent the first day after regression, racking my brain.
A glimmer of a solution appeared three days later.
For the past few days, I’d been busy combing through my room and the internet. I thought I needed to accurately grasp the situation before recklessly going outside. Whether this was the world I knew, whether I might be inside a dungeon or a virtual world, whether there was anyone else who’d regressed—things like that.
Meanwhile, since there was no bathroom or food in this house, I had to go outside briefly from time to time. Even though it was a short time, less than five minutes, I felt anxious and tried to refrain from even that.
The incident happened on the dawn of the third day, while I was coming back from washing up, unable to bear the grime any longer.
Coming out of a public restroom, shaking water from my hair, I let out a sigh.
‘How hard did I work to get those things, and they’re just….’
By now, everything else was a minor problem. What still tore at my heart was my lost treasures. I had no confidence I could get them back, and it hurt.
This did seem to be the world I knew, but even if I’d gone back in time, I probably wouldn’t be able to follow the exact same path as before.
“My brooch….”
Venting my frustration, I kicked a drink can lying on the ground.
At that moment, a clear sound rang in my ears.
Ding!
[A certain amount of time has passed without fulfilling the quest.]
A red window, different from usual. Suddenly, hot liquid surged up my throat.
[Penalty triggered: 〈Purifying Flame〉 in effect.]
“Khuh….”
I instinctively covered my mouth, but blood gushed out and dripped onto the ground. My vision swam, and I hunched over hurriedly.
I put my hand on the ground, and it felt strangely cold. Only then did I realize my body was running a fever.
‘Fuck…. No wonder I had a bad feeling.’
So this was what “penalty” meant.
Purifying Flame.
Well-named, at least. My whole body ached like it was burning. It was a horrible feeling.
I barely managed to get up. Being outside defenseless was dangerous. I needed to get home first.
While I was stumbling along, not even sure if I was going the right way, something bumpy got caught under my foot. My body, afflicted by the penalty, easily lost its balance.
“Argh!”
Falling face-first, I looked back to see the drink can I’d kicked earlier. The fall itself didn’t really hurt, but it felt disgusting. And I had no energy left to get up.
“Fuck, what the….”
Ding!
[Congratulations! Achievement, 〈Welcome. First Time in Purgatory?〉 achieved!]
A blue window appeared in my field of vision. And then a white light—
Vroom—!
My body was flung through the air. It was a moment later that I realized I’d been hit by a car. I was tossed onto the asphalt like a tumbleweed rolling across a wasteland.
Forget the pain—a curse came out first.
The car seemed to stop for a moment, then sped off with a loud noise.
‘…Go fall into a gate and die, just like that.’
Not wanting to get hit by a car again, I tried to move out of the way quickly. But this time, my body really wouldn’t move at all.
The pain was so excessive that I’d apparently lost all sensation—even the burning feeling had vanished at some point.
Basically, once you become an Awakener, you get a bit sturdier than ordinary people and your recovery improves too.
But for a non-Awakener, it’s more like a wound that would take a month to heal now heals in a week. It’s not like wounds vanish instantly, like magic.
In other words, there was no way I could get up right now. It might even be a miracle that I was still alive at all.
While I was staring blankly up at the sky, a translucent window appeared.
[A reward is granted.]
‘I’m basically dying here and you give me a reward? You bastard.’
Despite my biting curses in my head, before long my body became comfortable. It was different from the moment of death. Far from feeling sleepy, my mind became clear instead.
I felt like I’d soon be able to move. I slowly got up. The ground was soaked with the blood I’d shed.
Likewise, my blood-soaked clothes were in tatters. But feeling around with my hands, I confirmed there wasn’t a single bruise left on my body.
The burning pain, the fever—all of it had vanished as if washed away.
So, this was….
“What the….”
I was speechless at the magical phenomenon. There was only one possible explanation.
“…System?”
A blue window appeared before my eyes.
[Quest: Settle your Karma.
!If a certain amount of time passes without fulfilling the quest, a penalty will be applied.]
[Karma: 59,789]
The content looked no different from before, but the number had decreased. Until I’d left the house today, the number hadn’t budged an inch from 60,000.
Come to think of it, the penalty window had disappeared too, at some point.
With a dazed expression, I felt over my now-fine body. What had been detected as “Karma settlement”? Had my body recovered thanks to the “reward”?
While I was bewildered but trying to grasp the situation, a cheerful voice came from behind me.
“What’re you doing sitting on the ground, meow?”
A gender-neutral voice scolded me, sounding exasperated.
“This is no time to be sitting around so leisurely, meow!”
Pat-pat.
The light footsteps characteristic of a four-legged animal. A familiar-looking cat appeared. Sharp green eyes shone amid black fur.
Gently swishing its glossy tail, the cat opened its mouth.
“You disappeared for four days, meow! The boss is looking for you, meow! He’s super mad, meow!”
